RPGWatch - Basilisk Games Interview

So here is my next interview this week, this time with Thomas Riegsecker that was requested by Gilliatt on my suggestion thread in the forums. So enjoy everyone.

Couchpotato: Congratulations on releasing Eschalon: Book 3 last year. How has the game been received, and did the launch errors affect sales?

Thomas Riegsecker: Thank you. Book III has done as well as the other two games, although yes, the botched launch negatively affected the first week of sales, which is arguably the most important. To counter that bad launch, we ran some early promotions on Steam and GoG which was good for unit sales, but of course the amount earned per game has be notably less. It has sort of all balanced out now.


Couchpotato: Last year there was talk about a new expansion for Eschalon: Book 3. It that still a possibility, or has it been scrapped?

Thomas Riegsecker: Anything is a possibility down the road. Eschalon has been good to us, and we'd love to give fans some of the updates and additional content that has been discussed over the years. The plan right now is to continue developing our next game, and after that we will absolutely consider giving the trilogy a fresh update and add new content. We'll let the Eschalon fans decide if an updated trilogy with new content is something they'd want us to spend our resources on.

More information.

Well I for one am glad they did well with the Eschalon series, its first couple of games were a lot of fun. The third one I have yet to get around to as it is stuck in my huge backlog but it is in my GOG library and I will get there some time.
I will keep an eye out for any new games they produce as they are definitely an Indy I will support.

Good job keeping in contact with these smaller Indy producers Couch!

Originally Posted by Terry
Good job keeping in contact with these smaller Indy producers Couch!

No problem Terry I have more in the following weeks to come.

1. Rampant Games – Jay Barnson
2. OtherSide Entertainment - Underworld Ascendant
3. Spiderweb Games - Jeff Vogel
4. Spiders - Jehanne Rousseau

I occasionally catch myself humming an Eschalon Book tune, so enchanting was the music of the series.

Thanks for the read - look forward to his next project.

What a refreshing comment to see from the developer about Kickstarter - "my motto has always been "never take money from customers until you have something to sell"."

Gah, I really need to remember to buy the trilogy now (that's what I told myself back when the first game released and they said they were doing a trilogy).

Nice interview Couch.

These were fun games for me, not too much bread and got a lot of play out of each one. I'd pay for any future endeavours from these folk.

Thank you both for the interview.

I didn't know the Eschalon mods were made with a third-party editor. Personally, I'm not unhappy that they prefer to put their efforts on their next game. Looking forward to it.

I'm happy the Eschalon series sold well enough to let Basilisk do other games.

Good interview guys.

It's nice to show up to work and be able to pick what you want to do that day. Variety helps keep the doldrums away.

Looking forward to seeing what you guys are up to next. New engine, and sounds like you're working on something VR related?

Great job Couch. Keep them coming.

Thanks for the interview.

Especially liked his stance on the preorder part.
I also remember the hiccup on first week, I ended up buying the game on gog and his site because I felt bad about picking it up for a huge discount at GoG at first lol.

Hopefully their next game has somewhat more complex gameplay because Eschalon didn't have much. It had somewhat pretty art, and nice music, and OK exploration, but not much else.